


Two Kinds of Pain.

by 360loverpenguin



Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Ruffnut's insecurities, Sibling Bonding, Slight Violence, Twintuition
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-25
Updated: 2019-05-25
Packaged: 2020-03-17 03:28:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,365
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18956956
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/360loverpenguin/pseuds/360loverpenguin
Summary: Tuffnut knew his sister better than even their parents, and he could see her mind wasn’t on the fight, not entirely at least. She had been sloppy in dodging his attacks, ones he had used often enough that she should’ve been expecting them. And every time their eyes met, her scowl furrowed a little deeper. Though Tuff swore she looked more hurt than mad. Even upon her victory at the end of the fight, her smirk had seemed… empty, masking something else.He decisively stood up, allowing his wrist to fall to his side as he began to trace her path out of the arena. He would deal with it later, he couldn’t imagine it would get any worse, and the pained look on Ruff’s face was more worrying than a broken bone could ever be. Physical injuries were easily mended, he reasoned, but emotional ones… those could sometimes be impossible to mend. But the least he could do was try.





	Two Kinds of Pain.

**Author's Note:**

> Not gonna lie, I wrote this late at night, so sorry for any typos! Constructive criticism is always appreciated.

Ruffnut narrowed her eyes, pushing herself back onto her feet. She spared a glance at her bloodied palms, the rocks littering the floor of the arena leaving small cuts in her pale skin. She snatched her spear off of the ground, tightening her grip on the wood handle of the weapon. She bit her lip, once more charging towards her brother. She let out a battle cry to match his, their weapons colliding together as they met in the centre of the arena.

Her breathing was ragged, they had been going at this for hours, and she was completely exhausted. And it showed. Her reflexes were slowed, her attacks sloppy and off target, and Tuffnut saw it too. He had always been the faster twin, and apparently had more stamina than her as well. He kept his speed up, dodging her weak attempts at landing blows on him. She ducked beneath his mace, just barely avoiding the attack.

She grunted, adjusting her helmet back onto her head from where the iron had hit it, before charging Tuffnut once again. The handle of her spear met his mace, and for a moment the fight ceased, both twins breathing heavily as their lungs gasped for air.

“Give… up…” Tuffnut panted, his voice raspy. She could see the sweat soaking into his hair, plastering it to his forehead. She didn’t know how much longer they could keep up the fight, before one of them was a few seconds too late dodging an attack, and they got hurt for real. This had to end.

“Never.” Ruffnut bit through gritted teeth. She used her remaining ounce of strength to shove her weapon against his. She could feel Tuffnut’s strength crumpling beneath her weapon, and after a few seconds, he stumbled, falling back against the floor of the arena. A dull crack was barely audible as his wrist connected with the stone, and Ruffnut felt a dull ache in her own left wrist.

She could hear him groan angrily, throwing his mace against the ground in defeat. She smirked as she turned on her heel towards the entrance of the arena, quickly walking out. Though the second she was out of sight, her grin broke, tears coming to the backs of her eyes. She sunk to the ground, her back pressed against the cool stone of the arena.

She was a warrior, she didn’t cry. Not because of her muttonheaded brother, not because of Snotlout, not because she would always only be second best, she…

Ruffnut let out a single pained sob, her tears spilling freely down her cheeks, despite her hand angrily trying to wipe them away. Her brother’s words repeated in her mind as she rested her head on her knees.

It had happened that morning at breakfast, Ruffnut lazily dragged herself into the great hall, yawning as she practically fell into one of the seats. She was the last one to arrive to breakfast, exhausted from a late night training session.

She gazed around the room uninterestedly, wanting only to be back in bed. Honestly, why did breakfast have to be so early? If it was up to her, she’s have stayed in bed all day. Her eyes landed on her brother, he was sitting with Snotlout on the far side of the great hall, their backs to her. Though she could recognize her brother’s dreads anywhere.

She grinned mischievously, shoving herself up from her seat and beginning to cross the large room. Ruffnut silently walked up behind them, planning to scare them and hopefully evoke some hilarious reactions. However, when she got close enough to overhear their conversation, she froze.

“Look, Snotty, I know you’re only dating Ruff cause she’s the only girl our age…” Tuffnut said, gesturing in front of him with his fork as he spoke.

A sinking feeling landed in Ruff’s stomach, and she turned, running out of the large building with tears in her eyes before she could hear the end of his sentence, “But she’s my sister, and I don’t want her to get hurt.”

Nor did she hear Snotlout’s response, swearing it was more than a fling. “I won’t hurt her, I swear. Honestly, she’s one of the best things that’s ever happened to me. Nothing’s stopping me from finding another girl on some other island, but I don’t want any of them. Ruff’s the only one for me.” he said, his voice more serious than Tuff had ever heard it.

“Why?” Tuff asked solemnly, earning a confused look from Snotlout. “Why is she the only one for you?” he finished. There was a severity in Snotlout’s eyes as he spoke, one that Tuff had only seen a handful of times, one that told him his friend was speaking the truth. But when it came to the game of his sister’s heart, he wasn’t willing to take any risk, no matter how small it may seem.

“She’s not like other girls.” He said simply. Tuffnut rolled his eyes, unimpressed by the obvious statement. “She’s gorgeous, strong, fearless, crazier than… any other girl I’ve ever met. There isn’t any other girl in the entire archipelago like her. She’s… unapologetically herself. Never puts on a mask. And I love that about her.” he said, ending with a breathy laugh.

“When did you become as sappy as Hiccup?” Tuff asked, grinning at the shorter viking. He could trust Snotlout, he decided. He knew his friend well, and even Snotlout wasn’t a good enough liar to fake that romantic speech.

Tuff was just happy that someone, well, someone other than himself, understood Ruffnut. She deserved a guy who loved her crazy antics and personality just as much as her looks. And it looked like she had that with Snotlout. As much as he didn’t love the notion of his best friend courting his sister… he could relent his happiness for hers, and would in a flash.

“When I—” Snotlout began, smirking mischievously.

“Y’know what, no. I never want to hear anything about you dating my sister.” he said quickly, effectively cutting off whatever Snotlout had been about to say. Tuffnut covered his ears as Snotlout opened his moth to speak once again.

He stumbled getting out of his seat at one of the many worn wood tables littering the great hall, running towards the entrance. He laughed, the muffled sounds of Snotlout’s boots pounding heavily on the floor indicating the fellow rider was chasing after him.

Tuffnut let out a pained groan as he pushed himself off of the arena floor. He gently cradled his left wrist, running his fingers carefully over the swollen flesh. He pressed down on it slightly, noticing what he thought was a large crack running through the bone. He winced at the motion, the pain searing up his arm. He tried unsuccessfully to rotate the appendage, gritting his teeth to quell the tears burning his eyes from the action. The skin around his bone was beginning to darken, and he was sure a bruise would be evident there by morning.

It wasn’t a bad injury, heck, he had probably broken more bones than any other rider, it was just… unusual. Unusual for Ruff to fight that violently, that harshly, especially against him. He would expect that much force against a dragon hunter, or one of the many other enemies they had encountered throughout their time as riders, but when they fought one another, it was never this serious.

Her blows were just a little too hard, her hits just a little too close, her words just a little too cold.

Come to think about it, Ruffnut had been acting off all day. He hadn’t seen her at breakfast, the first time he met her that day had been in the arena, where she had been sharpening the end of her spear. She had seemed just a little to focused on the knife striking against the smooth iron, as if she were trying to distract her mind from something else.

He also noticed the way her eyes glistened with tears as they glanced up to meet his.

It wasn’t rare for Ruffnut to be angry, heck it was practically a daily occurrence, it was rare for her to hide the reason from her twin, however. Whatever was hurting her must have been serious, if not even her other half could pry it out of her.

Before he had had a chance to ask her why she was there, she had wordlessly crossed the arena, dropping the small dagger onto the stone ground of the arena. Tuff remembered the way the blade had clattered against the ground, echoing throughout the eerily silent arena. She had grabbed his mace, haphazardly tossing it towards him and holding out her spear in challenge. And thus, the fight began.

Tuffnut knew his sister better than even their parents, and he could see her mind wasn’t on the fight, not entirely at least. She had been sloppy in dodging his attacks, ones he had used often enough that she should’ve been expecting them. And every time their eyes met, her scowl furrowed a little deeper. Though Tuff swore she looked more hurt than mad. Even upon her victory at the end of the fight, her smirk had seemed… empty, masking something else.

He decisively stood up, allowing his wrist to fall to his side as he began to trace her path out of the arena. He would deal with it later, he couldn’t imagine it would get any worse, and the pained look on Ruff’s face was more worrying than a broken bone could ever be. Physical injuries were easily mended, he reasoned, but emotional ones… those could sometimes be impossible to mend. But the least he could do was try.

He didn’t have to look far to find her, Ruffnut was curled up upon herself just outside the entrance to the arena, as if her emotions had grown too strong and overtaken her before she had a chance to venture farther. He sobs grew more apparent as he drew nearer, the pain in his wrist fading from his thoughts as he sat down beside her.

Ruffnut tensed as she felt her brother’s presence beside her. Her tears froze midway down her cheeks, unwilling to show him how deeply his words from that morning had cut her. Silently, he rested his head on her shoulder, his blond locks intertwining with hers.

She shoved his head away, immediately rejecting the comforting gesture. She didn’t want his pity, she just wanted… she wanted someone to want her as more than a last resort, and any apology her brother had to offer wouldn’t fix that.

“What do you want.” she said, no question in her voice, raspy and broken as it was. She turned her head away from him, scrubbing harshly at the tears stains she knew were visible on her cheeks.

“What happened?” he asked, seemingly ignoring her tears. Ruffnut let out a shaky breath, running her fingers along the dirty leather of her boots, trying pathetically to distract herself. She had no energy left to be angry, and storm away, though that seemed like the easiest option.

She rarely opened up, Ruffnut didn’t enjoy feeling weak, something evident in her actions at that moment. It seemed so much easier to out run her emotions, he doubts, her insecurities, but of course Tuff would be too stubborn to allow that. They were vikings after all, she supposed it was in their nature.

“You.” she said, her voice cold as she spoke quietly, unusual for Ruffnut. Her voice chilled Tuffnut, he was used to her yelling after all the years they had spent together but… this was a new sort of rage. “You and ‘Lout. And everyone on this… on this entire frickin’ island.” she said, her voice breaking, despite her best efforts to prevent it.

“I don’t—” Tuffnut began, stopping abruptly as realization dawned on his face. “You heard us at breakfast, right?” he said, no question evident in his tone.

“You were right.” Ruffnut bit angrily, finally turning to face him. Her blonde locks were still strewn out of their typical braids from the fight, her blue eyes red and swollen from the tears that had long ago subsided, now replaced with hurt anger.

“Snotlout doesn’t love me, he never will. Nor will anyone else on all of Berk. I mean look at me!” Ruff practically shouted, pulling herself to her feet as she spoke, or rather shouted at her brother. “I will only ever be the last choice!”

“Ruff, that’s not true I—” Tuff began, standing up to match her height. She shrugged away the hand he attempted to rest on her shoulder. “Don’t lie to me. It was stupid of me to believe someone could actually lov—” Ruffnut stopped abruptly, racking in a sharp breath as the weight of the words she began to speak finally weighed down on her.

“I never believed that!” Tuff practically screamed, desperate to attain her attention. “It was just… you know how Snotlout is, up until a few years ago he flipped between girls like every other week. I couldn’t stand by and let him break you if it was just some stupid fling.”

Ruff allowed a small smile to crack through her harsh expression. At the end of the day, Tuff was just being an overprotective moron, something she doubted would ever change. She calmed slightly at his words, assuring her she wasn’t the second choice.  
“He loves you, though I have no idea why, I mean, I only barely tolerate you as your twin.” he said, restoring their typical banter, a soft smile playing on his face.

Ruffnut rolled her eyes, biting back an insult as she rubbed at the sore muscles around her wrist. They had a deeper connection than most siblings, one completely independent of any sound reasoning or logic, some may call it twintuition, others complete insanity, whatever it was, it was a constant reminder that no matter how irritating her could be, Tuffnut truly was her other half. Forever a part of her. And that was what pulled them back together, despite their fights.


End file.
